BRRR...WHO WANTS ICE-CREAM IN DECEMBER?

I can't raise my hand high or fast enough :)

Ice cream is comfort food. There is never an inappropriate time to indulge. Look at my surroundings. These photos were taken today. Yet, all I can think about is throwing down a nice bowl. Maybe it's the snow :)

A few months ago I came across the brand "Halo Top" that claims their entire pint of lo cal ice cream is 240 calories. :/ Can you imagine being able to eat an entire pint of cool, creamy, goodness that will only cost you the equivalent of doing a few loads of laundry? I've been trying to find the "eat the whole pint" brand of ice cream for months, and lo and behold my local Shop Rite in Poughkeepsie, NY has started carrying them. They were on sale for $2.88 a pint, so I decided to try them out.

The lemon cake flavor, which is my favorite cake-cake, seemed to be amongst the popular flavors, so I decided to go for that one. Of course you can't go wrong with chocolate, so I scooped that one up too.

By the time I arrived home, it had already thawed to that perfect slightly softened consistency, so for breakfast I had 2 scoops.

Lemon Cake

Creamy, sweet, slight tang, not too tangy. Tastes like lemon sorbet but creamier. If I closed my eyes and visualized, it would be a lemon creamsicle flavor. I thought it would have cake bits in it, but then this pint would be more than 240 calories. Good flavor. Would definitely buy again.

Chocolate
Tastes like a tootsie roll. It has a similar flavor to the no sugar added fudgesicles which I like. It's not too sweet which I can appreciate because you can really get all the flavor without the sugar. You definitely get the presence of salt. For me a slight tad too much. Some might not notice as it may be necessary to enhance the the flavor. Overall, I did like the chocolate, so I am on a quest to seek out the rest of the flavors once my store carries the full flavor line. Fingers crossed.

One thing I will add is that although I was on a quest to eat the whole pint, after a few scoops I couldn't. I felt full. I noticed the "good source of protein" label on the front and then I knew why. I'm sure if you really wanted to eat the whole thing you could, but save some for another snowy day. You'll definitely want more. :)

Pancakes With Crunchy Edges are Life...

Who doesn't enjoy a pancake with a crisp edge? You know... the crispiness that only your mom or grandma could achieve. When I saw this meme on the internet, I laughed out loud because it's something my sister Stacey and I talk about all the time. We would go to diners and restaurants and request pancakes with crunchy edges. The waitress would say okay...but return with regular ol' pancakes with soft edges. I gave up. I decided if I wanted pancakes like this, I would just make them at home. When looking at the meme's comments, I noticed that most people stated that only their parents or grandparents could achieve this crunchy goodness. Quite a few of the comments in the meme questioned how to achieve pancakes with crunchy edges? I chime in with "It's really not hard to achieve." All you have to do is add a few drops of cooking oil around the sides of your pancakes while cooking them. It can be vegetable oil, butter, or bacon

Shaken Baken Stuffed Peppers

So the recipe for my version of Stuffed Red Peppers comes from at least a dozen versions found on the internet. My whole approach was to get as much flavor out of these babies as possible. Most recipes called for rice, meat usually beef or turkey, and cheese for those who like it. I like all of these things so I incorporated them into my recipe. I also have family members that either don’t eat beef or don’t eat turkey (oy!) so I did both. I do have a lot of ingredients but the flavors came out really good! This recipe makes about 10 bell peppers. I wanted to try the peppers first in case it tasted funky... I can assure you it didn’t. There was a lot of meat leftover so I used it for 5 prepared meal packages for the week. My only issue was timing. As you can see they are a little well done so I will make sure to adjust my cooking time next time. Every recipe I found had a different temperature and cooking time so I was winging it for real….So without further adieu here is my

My Love For The Cosi Signature Salad

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of having a Cosi Signature salad, then I'm sure you will agree with me, as it is my favorite salad with a dressing you can drink. (kidding) I miss living in the big city so I have to improvise. And with a huge thanks to The Brown Eyed Baker , I was able to recreate it down to that awesome drinkable dressing. This is the first salad I’ve eaten with fruit in it. It has pistachios, red grapes, gorgonzola cheese, pears, and dried cranberries. I added leftover cooked chicken because I was starving and I didn’t want to be hungry later. My hubby sliced up a boiled egg in his. No egg for me. I had one already this afternoon. The chicken was a great companion to the fresh fruit. *Note: The Original Cosi salad does not have chicken or eggs. e is the official recipe courtesy of The Bro Eyed Baker. She did a great job replicating that dressing. Oh that dressing….ENJOY!!

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